Encapsulated liver cell composition
Microcapsules including a capsule shell encapsulating a suspension of a therapeutically effective amount of liver cells in physical contact with a liver cell stimulating amount of erythropoietin.
1. Microcapsules comprising a capsule shell encapsulating a suspension of a therapeutically effective amount of liver cells in physical contact with a liver cell stimulating amount of erythropoietin, wherein the therapeutically effective amount of liver cells is from 10 4 to 10 8 liver cells/ml suspension and the liver cell stimulating amount of erythropoietin is 10 −7 to 10 −2 U/ml suspension.
2. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the liver cells are selected from the group consisting of hepatic precursor cells, hepatic stem cells, hepatoblasts, endothelial cells and hepatocytes.
3. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the liver cells are obtained from adult liver, embryogenic liver, fetal liver, neonatal liver or liver cell cultures.
4. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the liver cells are human liver cells, non-human primate liver cells, pig liver cells, dog liver cells, cat liver cells, rabbit liver cells, mouse liver cells or rat liver cells.
5. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the microcapsules have an average diameter from 100 to 700 μM.
6. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the liver cells have an average diameter of 8 to 14 μm.
7. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein said erythropoietin is wild type erythropoietin or recombinant erythropoietin.
8. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the capsule shell is made from a biocompatible material selected from the group consisting of alginate, alginate-chitosan (AC), alginate-poly-L-lysine (APA), thermogelation-polymer and PEG-hydrogel.
9. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein in addition to the liver cells at least one further cell type is present in the microcapsule.
10. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the microcapsules are coated.
11. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the microcapsule contains the liver cells and the erythropoietin embedded in a biocompatible matrix.
12. The microcapsules according to claim 1 , wherein the liver cell stimulating amount of erythropoietin is 10 −7 to 10 −3 U/ml suspension.